Jan. 25, 2017 (Sacramento):  Decades-old Kit Carson Middle School is looking for a name to match its students as the campus evolves into a high school.

Kit Carson Vice Principal Rich Haley who serves on the committee charged with bringing recommendations to the Sacramento City Unified School District said the group has begun gathering input from the community. “We want to know what the community wants – whether we should adopt a totally new name or only tweak the name by dropping the middle school designation,” Haley said.

Haley added that Kit Carson, an International Baccalaureate World School, which now accepts students in grades 7-11, will graduate its first senior class next year. The IB program is an internationally respected educational program with a presence around the globe.

As a middle school, Kit Carson enrolled students in grades 7 and 8 but in 2014, it began adding a grade a year. It also has evolved from a “neighborhood” school with boundaries to a campus that accepts youth from communities outside its immediate East Sacramento community.

“Kit Carson is evolving and changing, but it retains a strong respect for the traditions of a school that was constructed in 1933,” Haley said. “We still honor the school’s ‘Pioneer’ traditions, even as we begin new traditions and carve out a new path for our students.”

Serving with Haley on the committee are parents from Caleb Greenwood (a feeder school for Kit Carson), David Lubin and Kit Carson, students, teachers, a classified staff member, Principal Santiago Chapa, and district Area Assistant Superintendent Mary Hardin Young.

Haley urged the community to submit their suggestions as soon as possible. He said the committee expects to review community suggestions by mid-February and submit recommendations to the Board of Education in March.

Suggestions for the committee may be submitted online at https://docs.google.com/a/scusd.edu/forms/d/1SFcjvWBNs8B8SJx3Js-Cz1y3hf5GNZPv4fysMJkKqUU/edit?usp=sharing_eixpa_nl&ts=58791f09 or on the Kit Carson web site.